In an electromechanical or electrical installation, a user typically interacts with the installation via a man-machine interface (for example, an operating panel with keys or buttons, or a touchscreen). For example, in an elevator installation, an elevator user interacts with the elevator via an operating terminal, also referred to as a fixture. An operating terminal may be located inside an elevator car to place a car call (i.e., to enter a destination floor), another operating terminal is then located on each floor to enter a hall call (i.e., to call a car to a floor by pressing an “up” or “down” button). In contrast, in installations with a destination control system, the destination floor is already entered at a floor terminal before entering an elevator car. Regardless of the kind of control implemented in an elevator installation, the interaction between the elevator user and the elevator occurs typically via fixtures/operating panels, even when, e.g., an RFID card is used to call an elevator.
The interactions between a user and the electromechanical or electrical installation take place in connection with a dedicated purpose of the electromechanical or electrical installation. In an elevator installation, for example, the dedicated purpose is transporting the user from one floor to another. Certain installations expand upon the dedicated purpose in that additional interactions are provided. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,260,042 discloses for an elevator installation an anonymous passenger indexing system for security tracking, in which a video processor anonymously monitors passengers using color index analysis of each passenger. Based on the monitored position of each passenger data parameters such as location, direction, speed and estimated time of arrival are calculated. An elevator controller controls elevator dispatch, door operation and security functions based upon the data parameters.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 7,298,256 describes a crisis monitoring system that detects a crisis by identifying a person's emotion from an utterance of the person. A recording unit records emotion attribute information, which includes a feature of a specific emotion in an audio signal (i.e., in the person's voice), and a control unit determines a person's emotion by analyzing the emotion attribute information. When the determined emotion indicates a crisis situation, an emergency routine is executed which includes alerting a control center or a security company.
An analysis of a vocal input to determine a person's state of mind or mood is also disclosed in WO 2009/116030 in the context of an access control system. The system inquires a person at a checkpoint to determine the person's identity and to decide whether or not access is to be granted to a person present at the checkpoint.
In view of these systems, there is a need for a technology that provides for additional interactions.